Leadership

This interesting article describes a few lessons on how students learn to create an environment where innovation thrives. Being intellectually curious is crucial in that perspective. Exploring for the information you need and connecting with people who can guide you in learning essential skills is important. This doesn’t only apply to being innovative, also to being a leader. What are the values and behaviours of leaders who are responsible for big innovations that disrupt?

Technological developments, the holy grail of flourishing opportunities and major challenges. Disruptive brands in the consumer market like Uber, Airbnb, Spotify, Apple and Google bring change at lightning speed. Many consumers experience all kinds of changes – barring they consider it to be advantages or not – this reflects on the business world. How is technology changing social interaction? The way we maintain relationships and collaborate is influencing contractual relations and as a result the outcome of contracts. Contract management, especially the psychological contract, is defining the quality of a brand ecosystem.

When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operation Task Force in 2004 to lead change management, he had no way of knowing what he was in for. The seasoned veteran—a four-star general with more than three decades of service in the Army—soon realized he had the nearly insurmountable task of fighting an enemy (Al Qaeda) that was both a chameleon and formidable.

While the U.S. had the organization, technology, and strategic know-how to defeat any foe, the ability of the enemy to change tactics and move easily across and through difficult terrain—often blending into crowds or staying well-concealed in caves or mountains—resulted in McChrystal re-thinking the way the U.S. Joint Forces and its support staff operated.

The resulting change amounts to one of the greatest undertakings any organization has ever endeavored to accomplish, and it provides a veritable playbook for how change management can be done successfully by organizations of any size.

“We had to unlearn a great deal of what we thought we knew about how war—and the world—worked,” writes McChrystal, now retired, author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement For A Complex World. “We had to tear down familiar organizational structures and rebuild them along completely different lines, swapping our sturdy architecture for organic fluidity, because it was the only way to confront a rising tide of complex threats.”

Though the theater might have been war, the language sounds a lot like that used for business, doesn’t it?

A sea with just sharks will soon be a sea devoid of life. The fish in a sea are as important as the predators. They keep the circle of life in balance. Our human society is not that different from natural ecosystems. In order to survive as an apex ‘predator’ one needs to understand the workings of an ecosystem, without misinterpreting the connection of ‘large’ and ‘success’. It is not the survival of the biggest, but the survival of the fittest. Successful organisations of the future are not by definition large, but they are capable of managing an extensive network of people and businesses, with only one purpose: customer centricity. What does this mean? How do businesses acquire the skills that are needed to build and maintain a business ecosystem and make sure they thrive in it?

10 do’s and don’ts for leadership success

Do you know who you are, what you believe and why you believe it? Are you able to be yourself in any given situation? Recently I read an article that contained a nice comparison for leaders that are facing their greatest challenge, namely integrating their personal and work lives:

Think of your life as a house. Can you knock down the walls between the rooms and be the same person in each of them?”

It takes a lot of courage to be a visionary, to walk your talk every step of the way. Especially when you still need to build your follower base. How can you find the inspiration to make an impact in the world as an authentic leader? Don’t strive to achieve success in tangible performances that are recognised in the external world. Strive for significance. Make a difference with your contribution: constantly build legacies by adding deep value to everyone you deal with. This is what makes good performers great leaders. Therefore self-awareness is a vital part of successful leadership.

Here are some principles that evolved from the values that I have ranked during my leadership journey.

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